Lewisham Council alliance loses GCSE legal challenge

AN alliance led by Lewisham Council of hundreds of pupils, schools, local authorities and teaching unions have lost their unprecedented legal challenge over GCSE English exam grades.

The alliance accused the AQA and Edexcel exam boards of unfairly pushing up the grade boundaries for English last summer in what amounted to "illegitimate grade manipulation" and "a statistical fix" involving exams regulator Ofqual.

But two judges at London's High Court have dismissed the challenge. Lord Justice Elias, sitting with Mrs Justice Sharp, said Ofqual had appreciated there were features which had operated unfairly and proposed numerous changes for the future designed to ensure problems that had arisen would not be repeated.

The judge said: "However, having now reviewed the evidence in detail, I am satisfied that it was indeed the structure of the qualification itself which is the source of such unfairness as has been demonstrated in this case, and not any unlawful action by either Ofqual or the AOs (exam boards)".

Judges were told at a hearing in December that an estimated 10,000 pupils who sat exams in June last year missed out on a C grade - the minimum grade normally needed to go into further education.

Clive Sheldon QC, appearing for the alliance, said the lower grades were not the fault of the students, who had "worked well and hard". He said the evidence of unfairness was overwhelming.

Ofqual had given an instruction to avoid "grade inflation", Mr Sheldon said. Predictions that too many students were going to get a C grade or better in GCSE English were used as a "straitjacket" rather than a guide, and a decision was taken to push up grade boundaries for the exams marked in June.

"This would bring down the numbers of good grades for the year as a whole, he added.

Lord Justice Elias dismissed the alliance's application for judicial review, but said the issue had caused an outcry and was "a matter of widespread and genuine concern properly brought to court".

Mayor of Lewisham Sir Steve Bullock said: “This is a very frustrating outcome. We note that the judge accepted that the case exposed unfairness and that it was right that this was properly investigated in the court room.

"But that is no consolation for the thousands of students up and down the country who will have to continue to live with the consequences of this unfairness.

"We wish them every success in the future.”

Ofqual chief regulator Glenys Stacey said: "We welcome the decision of the court that, faced with a difficult situation, Ofqual did the right thing and the fairest thing, for the right reasons.

"We know some students and schools will be disappointed with this. We understand that. But it's our job to secure standards."

Comments (1)

I took exams in the seventies, and it was well known that the exam papers set in some years were more difficult than those set for some other years.

The problem today is that everybody who fails to pass ten or more papers at A triple star grade is written off as a failure.

I took exams in the seventies, and it was well known that the exam papers set in some years were more difficult than those set for some other years.
The problem today is that everybody who fails to pass ten or more papers at A triple star grade is written off as a failure.goldenbroomboy